I started taking Lamictal a month ago from tomorrow, and I thought I wasn't having any side effects, but lately I've been noticing a few things happening that seem to have started right after I started the Lamictal.
One of them is memory problems. I was diagnosed with a slight cognitive disorder with visual memory problems when I had my Neuropsych tests a few months ago, but it wasn't something I'd ever noticed having a problem with.
But ever since I started on the Lamictal (in addition to Tegretol and Keppra), I'm noticing that I'm actually having some long-term memory problems. I read that memory problems could be a side effect, but I've had a number of bothersome moments in the past month where I seem to have lost old memories. I used to remember stuff that happened to me when I was 3 years old (I still do), but people have mentioned things that happened in high school or people from high school (8 - 11 years ago), and I don't remember. Even from when I went on vacation to Florida in May, there are things people recently asked me about the trip, and I had totally forgotten about them, and it took some reminding from someone else who was with me on the trip for me to remember. I've never been like that.

Also, I've been driving really badly since last month. I seem to kind of space out while I'm driving. This week, I stopped at the store, had forgotten there was a raised curb in front of me and didn't see it when I was in the car, and then tried to drive over it. And yesterday, I was looking at the wrong traffic light (I was looking at the lights for the other lanes instead of the one for the turning lane), and my friend had to point out to me that it was still red. And there have been a lot of examples like that recently.

Lamictal effected my memory when I was taking it. I found it difficult to timely retrieve familiar memories I could eventually remember over time. Also, short term memory took a hit. I very often couldn't remember why I walked into a room. At first I attributed all this to middle age. However, memory improved once I was no longer prescribed lamictal.

I can't commment on the driving aspect as I've had some issues on/off lamictal.

I found a website yesterday, after I posted this, where people post their experiences with Lamictal. Some of it sounds similar to me. Also, do you all remember my post about my scalp being so itchy from what I thought was the glue from the VEEG? Well, I realized it's a side affect of the Lamictal (it's still itchy a month later). It wasn't listed as an official side-effect on any of the websites, but on the website where people listed their own side effects from Lamictal, irritated scalp was listed by a whole bunch of people.

My boyfriend is on Limictal for his juvenile-myoclonic epilepsy. In his case, I have noticed some memory issues, both long term and short term. He can not drive due to the seizures so I can not really comment on the driving effect.

I do have a question though, he has been on the limictal for roughly 3.5 months and still is having seizures. They are not as frequent as they were before but from my understanding there should be no seizures what so ever. Have any other people on limictal still suffered from seizures?

Melissa, "full seizure control" is something that we would like, but are told not to expect. In reality, it is RARE. I had very good control for a number of years, I could even drive. However I stress don't expect "full control". There is good control, and "rare seizures". However, we still have epilepsy (it doesn't go away). We may still have "breakthrough seizures" from time to time even on the best treatment.

I don't know if you can understand that fully without having epilepsy, but it is what I see as reality.

Lamictal only worked for me as my dosages were increased. Your boyfriend may want to ask the doctor to check his blood levels in order to see if there is enough of the medication in his system for it to be effective. In my case, lamictal stopped working as I reached the maximum dosage amount. Your boyfriend will need to be patient as there is a lot of trial and error in finding the right meds or combination of meds. Good luck.

And Melissa, Travis is right- it's rare to get "complete control" over seizures. I'm lucky enough to only have mild ones (simple partial) on medication (Tegretol and Keppra... and Lamictal was just added), so I can still drive and live a normal life. But my goal is to really try to make them a rare occurence. I get them twice a month now (related to my hormones), and they last a few days each time. But when they saw me in the hospital when I had my VEEG, I was actually having a bad period of time where I was having almost constant seizures for three days (A good thing for testing purposes, bad for me. they get like that every few months. And they're not bad- I don't lose consciousness or anything. They're just super annoying, and make me tired if there's a lot of them, and generally make me not want to do much other than sit around and watch TV), so they prescribed Lamictal for me while I was in the hospital. So far it's working awesomely. I'm taking 200 mg/day and I've only had one mild seizure since I started on it a month ago. Right now I'm at the time of month where I should start having seizures, and I haven't had any yet. My next appointment with my doctor is in November, so hopefully then, I can start weaning off of Tegretol or Keppra (I eventually would like to only be on Lamictal if it controls my seizures better).
I didn't really mean to give you my whole Epilepsy-life story there. Hehe. But I guess I thought it would help you see that it can take a lot of tinkering with meds (I've been on meds for 7.5 years, and this whole time, my doctor was changing doses, and a few years after starting Tegretol, we added Keppra, and now we added Lamictal). So hopefully your boyfriend's doctor can find the right dose or right combination of meds to get his seizures under control better. It just might take a little while. Good luck!

So, I seem to have developed another side effect of Lamictal- "coordination problems". Two nights ago, I walked smack into my brother, and then a half hour later I walked into a chair and broke my toe.
I've never had this many side effects from a med before! At least they're not major ones. I'd rather have these side effects than have seizures!

I started taking Lamictal a month ago from tomorrow, and I thought I wasn't having any side effects, but lately I've been noticing a few things happening that seem to have started right after I started the Lamictal.
One of them is memory problems. I was diagnosed with a slight cognitive disorder with visual memory problems when I had my Neuropsych tests a few months ago, but it wasn't something I'd ever noticed having a problem with.
But ever since I started on the Lamictal (in addition to Tegretol and Keppra), I'm noticing that I'm actually having some long-term memory problems. I read that memory problems could be a side effect, but I've had a number of bothersome moments in the past month where I seem to have lost old memories. I used to remember stuff that happened to me when I was 3 years old (I still do), but people have mentioned things that happened in high school or people from high school (8 - 11 years ago), and I don't remember. Even from when I went on vacation to Florida in May, there are things people recently asked me about the trip, and I had totally forgotten about them, and it took some reminding from someone else who was with me on the trip for me to remember. I've never been like that.

Also, I've been driving really badly since last month. I seem to kind of space out while I'm driving. This week, I stopped at the store, had forgotten there was a raised curb in front of me and didn't see it when I was in the car, and then tried to drive over it. And yesterday, I was looking at the wrong traffic light (I was looking at the lights for the other lanes instead of the one for the turning lane), and my friend had to point out to me that it was still red. And there have been a lot of examples like that recently.

Anyone else ever have any side effects like this from Lamictal?

Thanks!

Hi, I have been on Lamictal for 5 years, the side effects have become more of a life's challenge than the seizures themselves. In about an hour after taking Meds my vision begins to blurr, muscle controll in my legs and complety unable to walk. This will last at least an hour. Long term effects: extreme memory loss, (can't remember how long it has been lol) total lack of motivation are just a couple.

The effectiveness has not been that good and finally giving up on Lamictal and going to Keppra but the change over is not going well as far as the daily side effects.

I had horrible experiences with Lamictal. Side effects included memory loss, inability to concentrate, loss of coordination. And I experienced two generalized tonic-clonic seizures during those six months, twice as many as my historical average. This was a disaster for my working life, and I'm now gratefully phasing off of I onto Zonisamide.